NHL: 3 stories from Tuesday night

The Montreal Canadiens didn't waste Carey Price's effort in his return to the lineup, while the Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators found themselves on the opposite ends of late-game rallies.

But the game of the night may have to be rewarded to a couple of state rivals in the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers.

Here are three stories from Tuesday night:

Price stands his ground

The Montreal Canadiens have been pretty convincing in their last two games before the all-star break, taking down two of the strongest teams in the league.

They followed up Saturday’s 6-4 win over the New York Islanders with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Nashville Predators.

Montreal responded to former Canadiens forward Mike Ribeiro’s second period goal with two power-play markers.

Defenceman P.K. Subban had the game-winner with less than a minute to play in overtime.

In Carey Price’s first return back from a two game hiatus due to an upper-body injury, the 26-year-old goalie shone once again. He made 36 saves to earn the first star of the game and his 24th win in 36 starts.

No love lost in "Battle of Pennsylvania"

In the end it was Claude Giroux settling the matter for the standings as he scored a power-play goal in overtime to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburh Penguins at Wells Fargo Center.

However, it was the combined 82 penalty minutes over the first two periods that brought this battle of state rivals to centre stage.

A hostile tone for the evening was set late in the first period when Flyers centre Zac Rinaldo was ejected for boarding Kris Letang of the Penguins.

The bad blood carried over into the middle frame when the two sides dropped the gloves four times, which is detailed in our piece Penguins, Flyers bring "fight night" to Philly.

Even league-leading scorer Jakub Voracek of the Flyers decided to get in on the action.

As for Rinaldo, he is considered a repeat offender. He was assessed a game misconduct in Saturday's loss to the Vancouver Canucks and last season sat out four games for an illegal hit to the head of Buffalo Sabres' defenceman Chad Ruhwedel.

Just after midnight on Wednesday, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced that Rinaldo had been offered an in-person hearing for his latest antics.

OT brings different results for Oilers, Senators

The Oilers had dropped eight of their last nine games to the Capitals, but that didn't stop them from rallying to a 5-4 shootout victory on the strength of Teddy Purcell's decisive marker.

Despite salvaging a point, the Capitals can't be happy with surrendering two goals in the final five minutes of the third period that helped Edmonton force overtime.

One bright spot for Washington was Alex Ovechkin who struck twice and now has 11 goals in his last 11 games.

Meanwhile, in New York, it was the Rangers rallying to a 3-2 overtime victory, with Carl Hagelin providing the game winner.

Ottawa built up a 2-1 lead that stood until Chris Kreider knotted the score just under three minutes into the third period.